Apparatus for printing knitted articles of footwear



Aug. 20, 1957 E. G. HARDING 2,803,191

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR .Filed Aug. 9. 1954 8 Sheets-Sheet l i 59a 3/ 2 64 7 6 63 I9 1: Al II N H I II I Aug ZO, 1957 v APPARATUS Filed Au 9, 1954 E. ca. HARDING 2,803,191

FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug. 0, 1957 E. G. HARDING 2,803,191

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES 0F FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, 1954 v 88heets-Sheet 5 1957 E. G. HARDING 2,803,191

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, 1954 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 Aug, 20, 1957 E. G. HARDING APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, 1954- s Sheets-Sheet 5 Aug.,20, 1957 E. G. HARDING APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES 0F FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, .1954

8 Sheets-Sheet 6 lll ll Aug. 20, 1957 E. G. HARDING A 2,803,191

APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, 1954 s Sheets-Sheet 7 Aug. 20, 1957 E. G. HARDING APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNITTED ARTICLES OF FOOTWEAR Filed Aug. 9, 1954 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 5w TNQ 1.1: M. V. QSFA w Ill I Wm an mn NQ V mm v m m w 1| llllr I AQEM A Q I 1|||| i mm N ml Wm nited States APPARATUS FOR PRINTING KNKTTED ARTICLES F FOOTWEAR This invention relates to apparatus for printing patterns, designs or fancy effects upon articles of knitted footwear, such as half hose, three-quarter hose, with or without turnover tops, sports (including golf) hose, and so Although there is no limitation in this respect, it is principally the intention that the apparatus of this invention shall be capable of printing patterns, designs or fancy effects simulating those which can normally only be produced by specially provided tackle on a knitting machine, during knitting. Thus, the printing may represent closely, in appearance, effects which would conventionally be machine-produced by jacquard designing, stitch variation, float plating, reverse plating, striping or by any other appropriate selective knitting.

The primary object of the invention is to provide an easily operable and efficient machine of robust construction for the screen-printing of articles of knitted footwear.

Another object is to provide, for use in such a machine, a readily insertible and removable mandrel adapted for support of an article of knitted footwear, during printing, as will be hereinafter described.

Broadly considered, the machine of this invention comprises, in combination, a principal framework, :a frame for a stencil-like screen mounted within the said framework, holding means for a squeegee or the like arranged for action upon one side of the screen, a rotary spindle constituting a carrier for a mandrel which is adapted to support an article of knitted footwear in contact with the opposite side of the screen, and means for elfecting appropriate relative movement between the aforesaid frame, on the one hand, and the squeegee or the like and the rotary spindle on the other hand.

The mandrel itself, manufactured and sold for use in a machine of the character described, constitutes an important feature of the invention. This mandrel is wholly or principally of tubular form, its internal bore being so dimensioned, both axially and cross-sectionally, as to enable the mandrel to be readily placed on and removed from the rotary spindle by a simple longitudinal sliding action. The'mandrel and the rotary spindle are provided with readily interengageable complementary formations designed to prevent relative rotation between the two when once the mandrel has been placed and moved into position on the spindle.

The appropriate, e. g. outer, end of the mandrel may advantageously be tapered .or equivalently formed to facilitate an article of knitted footwear being drawn onto the smooth, cylindrical exterior of the mandrel. Depressions of appropriate form are provided in the exterior surface of the mandrel to receive protuberant or bulky parts of an .article not requiring to be printed upon.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood and readily carried intopractical effect, a specific constructional :form of screenrprin-ting machine suitable for the intended purpose, and a mandrel for use inthe same, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figures 1 and 1A together constitute a plan view of the complete machine, 7

Figures 2 and 2A are a rear view of the same as seen in the direction of the arrow A in Figure 1,

Figures 3 and 3A considered together show a detail plan of one of the side portions of the printing frame carriage,

Figures 4 and 4A are a side view of the said carriage as seen in the direction of the arrow B in Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a detail front view of one of the four con nected brackets of which the carriage is principally constituted,

Figures 6 and 6A are an elevation, partly in section, showing more clearly, the printing frame, the rotary mandrel-carrying spindle, a mandrel in position thereon, the squeegee and the holders for the latter,

Figure 7 is a side elevational view of a mandrel, and

Figures 8 and 9 'are plan and inner end views of the same as seen in the directions of the arrows C and D in Figure 7 respectively,

Like-parts are designated by similar reference characters throughout the drawings.

In the illustrated machine, the principal framework comprises suitably spaced and parallel front and rear vertical frames 1 and 2 respectively which are connected, inter alia, by a cross bar 3. A pair of horizontal square-section guide rails 4 are secured to the frames ,1 and 2 and serve to support connected pairs of right and left-hand brackets 5 and dconstituting the four corners of a rectangular carriage designated generally by the numeral 7. The 'lower portions of the two right-hand brackets 5 are spaced apart and rigidly connected by a horizontal fiat bar 8 which extends transversely across the'machine from front to back thereof. Similarly, the lower portions of the two left-hand brackets 6 are spaced and connected by a flat bar 9. The opposed bars 8 and 9 project inwardly from the brackets 5 and 6 and function as ledges for the support of a square or rectangular printing frame such as 10 constructed of wood. As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the undersides of the brackets 5 and 6 are rabbe'ted to receive the bars '8 and -9 and the latter are secured by screws 11. The upper portions of the clearly in Figure 4 and arranged to run along the top surfaces of the guide rails 4. At its inner side each of the four brackets 5 and 6 is also furnished with a smaller roller 16 arranged to travel beneath the relevant guide rail. The outer faces of the said brackets are horizontally channelled at 17 to accommodate horizontally disposed front and rear bars 18 and 19 serving additionally to connect the brackets and also to space the latter apart late-rally. These bars which are of fiat section and arranged in vertical planes are secured to the brackets 5 and 6 by means of screws 20. From Figure 2 it will be seen that the screws 20 extend through elongated slots 21 formed in the bars 18 and 19, this enabling the pairs of right and left-hand brackets to be relatively adjusted laterally and set in position nearer to or farther away from one another depending on the size of the printing frame to be carried by latter in position within the carriage 7. In this regard each of the clamping bars 23 is drilled with a longitudinal series of holes enabling the said bar to be engaged over a corresponding number of vertical pins 24 set in the bar (8 or 9) below. These pins are screw-threaded to receive milled nuts 25 whereby the bars 23 are clamped down upon the frame 10. Compression springs 26, arranged to surround the pins 24, are interposed between the top surface of the flat bar 8 or 9 and the underside of the corresponding clamping bar (as shown in Figures 4 and 5). Set screws 27, fitted with locknuts 28, are vertically disposed in the bars 8 and 9 for contact wit-h the undersides of the clamping bars 23, the purpose of such screws, when appropriately adjusted being to ensure that an evenly distributed downward pressure is exerted on the printing frame.

The wooden printing frame 10 is adapted to contain fluent printing paste or other medium, and has secured to its underside a stencil-like flat screen 29. This screen may be fabricated of silk, or of a plastic fibre such. for instance, as the polyester fibre known as Terylene. Alternatively, the screen may consist of Phosphor bronze, stainless steel or any other suitable metallic gauze.

The aforementioned front and rear vertical frames 1 and 2 are furnished with connected pairs of chain sprockets and 31 (see Figure 1) around which are passed two lengths of chain 32 and 33. The opposite ends of the front chain 32 are anchored to the respective ends of the horizontal front bar 18, whilst, as clearly shown in Figure 2, the ends of the rear chain 33 are similarly anchored to the corresponding ends of the rear bar 19 at points above the depending extensions 22 thereof. The pair of sprockets 30 at the right-hand side of the machine, as viewed from the front, are rigidly connected by a transverse spindle 34 which is arranged to be driven from an electric motor 35 (Figures 1 and 2) through the medium of, say, bevel or worm gearing. In this regard, it will be seen that the drive-transmitting gearing is contained Within a gear box 36 from which extends a shaft 37 fitted with a pair of grooved pulleys 38 and 39 around a selected one of which and the relevant one of a pair of pulleys 40 and 41 on the motor spindle is passed a V-section driving belt 42. By changing the belt over from the pulleys 38 and 40 onto the pulleys 39 and 41, or vice versa, the speed of operation of the machine can, of course, .be changed. The electric motor 35 is wired in circuit both with a main switch box (not shown) and also with a stop and reversing switch box 43 containing switches of the mercury type. These switches are connected by means of two levers 44 and 45, shown in plan in Figure 1, with two horizontally disposed control rods 46 and 47 located at the front of the machine. Each of the said control rods is furnished with a thumb-piece 48 "or the like whereby it can be manually shifted axially to operate the relevant reversing switch and so start the carriage 7 moving in the appropriate direction. Adjustable stops 49 are, however, fitted on the control rods 46 and 47 and so arranged as to be in the path of an abutment 50 (Figure 1) projecting up from the carriage, the arrangement being such that each time the carriage approaches the end of a traverse in either direction, the abutment 50 will strike the appropriate stop 49 and so shift the relevant control rod in such a way as to stop the motor 35. To re-start and reverse the motor so that the carriage makes a traverse in the opposite direction the other control rod is shifted manually by its thumbpiece 48, and so on.

In the drawings the rotary mandrel-carrying spindle is indicated at 51. As will be seen in Figures 1 and 6 this spindle is located below and extends at right angles to the path of the carriage 7 with its free end 51a projecting towards the front of the machine. The said spindle, moreover, is mounted to rotate in front and rear bearings 52 and 53 which are adjustable heightwise so that a mandrel m placed on the spindle can be properly set in relation to the screen 29. The front bearing 52 is combined with a carrier 54 which is adjustable up and down on a forked bracket 55 mounted upon the cross bar 3 (see Figure 6). The spaced, vertically disposed arms 55a of the bracket 55 are slotted as at 56 to receive screws such as 57 whereby the bearing 52 is secured in position after adjustment. In a similar way, the rear bearing 53 is associated with a triangular carrier 58 which, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, is adjustable up and down on a vertically disposed forked bracket 59 mounted on a rearwardly directed extension of the cross bar 3. Here again, the spaced arms 59a of the forked bracket 59 are slotted at 60 to receive screws 61 for securing the rear bearing 53 in position after an adjustment thereof. Rigidly secured upon the portion 51b of the spindle 51 extending between the two bearings 52 and 53 is a pulley 62 around which is passed a length of wire cable 63 (Figures 1, 2 and 6) the ends of which, as depicted more clearly in Figure 2, are anchored to screws 64 secured in the depending extensions 22 of the rear bar 19. Thus, as the carriage 7 is traversed to and fro, the spindle 51 is positively rotated at a commensurate speed first in one direction and then in the other.

For lifting the carriage 7 clear of the mandrel m at the termination of each printing operation, elongated cams 65 with bevelled or similarly shaped ends 65a are provided on the tops of the guide rails 4 for action upon the aforementioned rollers 15. But to enable the carriage to lift up in this way, the undersides of the rails 4 require to be recessed at as (see Figure 2) to receive the smaller rollers 16.

The squeegee, which is shown at 67, is interposed between a pair of stiffening strips 68 and is secured at its upper edge, by means of screws 69 (Figure 6) within the lower flanged portion 78a of bi-partite holder blocks 70. The complementarily flanged upper portions 7% of the said holder blocks are fixed by means of screws 71 upon a fiat section bar 72 extending between and carried by a pair of pivoted arms 73. These arms are rigidly connected by a cross rod 74 and are fulcrumed at 75 upon a fixed cross rod 76 serving to carry the pair of sprockets 31 at the left-hand side of the machine. For the purpose of enabling the requisite degree of pressure to be exerted by the squeegee 67 downwardly upon the screen 29, the upper portions 70b of the holder blocks 7 0 are furnished with upright spindles 77 upon which are placed a selected number of weights 78. The holder blocks 70 are adjustable to move the squeegee 67 towards and away from the screen by means of adjusting screws 79 arranged with their leading ends in contact with the upper edge of the bar 72. Instead of a pair of holder blocks, only one such block may be provided in which instance the squeegee could, if desired, be pivotally mounted in the said single block at a point centrally between its ends. The connected pivoted arms 73 carrying the weighted squeegee are capable of being turned back out of the way to remove the squeegee from the vicinity of the screen 29, as occasion demands.

The leading ends of the pivoted arms 73 are furnished with rollers 80 which are acted upon and raised at appropriate times by bevelled cams 81 on the brackets 5 and 6 for the purpose of lifting the squeegee off the screen at the end of each printing operation.

A specific form of the mandrel in suitable for use in the screen-printing machine will now be described with reference to Figures 6-9. The mandrel is of mainly cylindrical form and is bored through axially from end to end, the bore in being of a circular cross-section to fit upon the spindle 51. The inner end of the mandrel has secured thereto, by means of screws 82, a metal ring 83 (see Figure 9) in which is formed an axially extending hole 84 adapted to accommodate a locating pin or peg 85 provided on an annular flange 86 on the spindle 51. Alternatively, the spindle could be formed with a longitudinal spline or rib designed to seat in a corresponding slot formed in the mandrel. The outer end of the mandrel is tapered as at m and a comparatively deep and suitably shaped depression In is made at an appropriate distance therealong from its outer end, to receive the heel pouch of an article of knitted footwear. Near to its opposite end the mandrel has formed therein an annular recess m to receive the ribbed top (if any) of the article. The idea is, of course, that the protuberant or bulky parts of an article shall be pressed into the depressions to prevent them from coming between the surface of the article to be printed upon and the appropriate side of the screen 29 and so interfering with the screenprinting operation. In any event, the mandrel may, as shown, he annularly scored or additionally recessed as at m an appropriate distance in from its inner end to provide a datum line against which can be registered the top edge of the leg portion adjoining a ribbed top of the article drawn onto the mandrel.

The mandrel m may be made of wood, metal or any suitable plastic material. As to a metallic mandrel this may be fashioned from a length of, say, aluminium tubing.

Separate machines may be used for printing respectively different colours on one and the same article of knitted footwear.

Two or more of such machines may conveniently be used in conjunction with an endless conveyor furnished with pegs or spindles to carry mandrels, the conveyor being arranged to travel through a heated drying chamber or chambers. It will accordingly be appreciated that an operative at one machine can take off mandrels supporting articles printed in, say, one colour and place these on the conveyor. Then, after being dried by passage through the said chamber or chambers, the articles still on the mandrels, can be successively taken off the conveyor by another operative and placed in another machine for printing in another colour, and so on. Many variations of this progressive system of printing and drying are, of course, possible.

I claim:

1. A machine for the screen-printing of articles of knitted footwear comprising, in combination, a main framework, rails on said framework, a carriage mounted for reciprocation along the said rails, rollers on the ends of the carriage, a frame secured on'the carriage, a printing screen carried by the frame, a squeegee arranged for action upon one side of the screen, means for holding the squeegee, a rotary spindle adapted to be rotated about a stationary axis at the opposite side of the screen and at a speed commensurate with the linear speed of the carriage, a mandrel mounted on and rotatable with the spindle, said mandrel being adapted to support an article of knitted .footwear in contact with the appropriate side of the screen, means for moving the carriage linearly as aforesaid conjointly with rotation of the spindle, and cams on the tops of the rails arranged for action on the rollers on the carriage for the purpose of lifting the latter and hence also the printing frame clear of the mandrel at the termination of each printing operation.

2. A screen-printing machine according to claim 1, wherein the rotary spindle has a flange on which is provided a locating pin for engagement in a hole in the mandrel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,667,390 Pedrazzo et al. Apr. 24, 1928 2,105,572 Williams Jan. 18, 1938 2,174,298 Whisner Sept. 26, 1939 2,207,818 Perry et al. July 16, 1940 2,237,168 Smith Apr. 1, 1941 2,249,939 Branan July 22, 1941 2,571,685 DAutremont Oct. 16, 1951 2,587,534 Schwartz et al. Feb. 26, 1952 

